The Ferrari Dino was always my favorite racing car, but that was as much to do with the two seasons I was a member of Scuderia Ferrari as the car itself. First, I had been approached by two suspicious looking Italian gentlemen at the British Motor Show in London in October 1958. These two took me to one side and told me that Enzo Ferrari wanted to talk to me. I had had a successful 500-cc F3 career and was getting on with the Lotus 12 and 16 in Grand Prix races, but it just wasn’t reliable because Colin (Chapman) would build them so light.
I went to Modena right away and met Mr. Ferrari and was driving cars at the Modena circuit immediately. I was very pleased to think I could race a Ferrari in a Grand Prix because it was likely that the parts wouldn’t fall off! The agreement was that I would drive sports cars and have a regular F1 drive. It turned out that Mike Hawthorn had made the recommendation that Mr. Ferrari consider Phil Hill and myself for the team. The 1958 season had been a disaster for Ferrari with the deaths of Collins and Musso, and then Mike was killed at the beginning of 1959.
